It is common in the medical image processing field to detect a target object from a medical image. For example, it is of important clinical significance to detect an intervertebral disc from a medical image of a human body. The setting of a section for taking the image of an intervertebral disc is extremely time-consuming in medical spine examinations. On this account, as a conventional technology, an automatic scan planning method has been developed to automatically set a section for taking the image of an intervertebral disc. First, a sagittal plane image and/or a coronal plane image which are/is generally relatively low in quality are/is acquired through blind scan, and an intervertebral disc is detected from the sagittal plane image and/or the coronal plane image of relatively low quality. Then, the scanning of an intervertebral disc is planned using information of the detected intervertebral disc such as the position and the direction of the detected intervertebral disc, so that a subsequently performed intervertebral disc scan can be performed on an image of higher quality.
Fully automatic intervertebral disc detection technologies are available as conventional techniques, but it is still needed to provide a more accurate and more robust intervertebral disc detection technology.
Embodiments described herein are directed to providing a medical image processing apparatus, a medical image processing method and a medical imaging device that are capable of more accurately detecting an intervertebral disc.
A medical image processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes a reception unit and a detection unit. The reception unit is configured to receive two points specified on at least one sagittal image. The detection unit is configured to detect an intervertebral disc by evaluating a luminance distribution within a region that includes the two points.